The Evolution Of Leogang: From Embarrassing Bike Park To Epic Race Track

Once dismissed as too much of a bike park, the track at Leogang has evolved over the past 10 years to become a favourite on the race calendar. Henry explains how this transformation happened over the past decade.

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Credit to UR Team for access to the archival footage.

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when you think of Le gang you might think of a racetrack that is natural Steep and rutted but it definitely wasn’t always the case Le gang was once the butt of many jokes and by some not considered a real race track at all so how did it Grow from ugly duckling into Ry a favorite today I thought we’d have a look somewhat paradoxically Le gang might not have been considered the single most demanding racetrack but it tended to actually offer really good close racing plus it really offered some variety for instance after the 2011 famous shami track which was steeper and rougher and trickier than ever they actually came to Lear gang for what was basically a sunny bike park afternoon in 2012 now obviously it’s all downhill but there is an argument to say that different tracks should suit different Rider skills and they shouldn’t all try and be the same thing in fact even in Le gang’s awkward adolescent bike park era we still saw winers there such as Mina Gwyn Rego Rachel Aon Josh bryland so it’s not as if it wasn’t demanding the very best out of the very best and curiously enough it was the last venue to ever be won on a 26in Wheel Downhill bike in the elite category which does contradict the idea that it’s a smooth bike park run where average speed is all that mattered but when it comes to Bike Tech and its relationship to the track I actually want to think back to 2017 when Phil Atwell almost as a protest decided to ride a practice run on his dirt jump hard tail just to prove that it really wasn’t befitting of a World Cup Downhill venue he even called the track embarrassing now at the time there was this rather salacious rumor going about that Red Bull wanted to have their home race or at least the one closest to their Austrian headquarters to have the closest racing and in their mind best racing of any of the venues so people said they were taking out roots and removing rocks and buffeting the track to make it as smooth as possible how much truth is in this I’m not so sure that said the racing was very very close although they weren’t actually digging it up in a lot of Ryder’s eyes that was the year that things really hit rock bottom and since then the track has seen many changes and largely gotten much better that year Gwyn won his third Le gang world cup in a row and Tiny crave won in the female category now whilst both those Riders are obviously phenomenal and have won any number of World Cup venues That Vary a lot from that Lear gang track that 2017 track could be said to favor Riders who had mastered the fundamentals rather than those that could do something really creative or were happy to roll the dice when it came to a race run for 2018 they changed the track most notably in the upper section they removed the beautiful BMS of the bike park and sent Riders straight through the grassy NOS now this open section really rutted up and gave Riders the freedom and choice to ride it the way that they wanted it wasn’t just Mainline with confidence anymore but rather who could get on the inside who could hold High lines and who could view the track really creatively that track also featured some tighter taping to make the open Tech sections well a little bit more difficult and it took out some of the easier lines this then meant that it was only matter of time before certain Riders were able to Gap over things that other people were just about rolling 2018 I think would also been the first year that we saw Riders pick up out of the tunnel and GAP all the way to the W ride now on the live stream it looks impressive but it doesn’t do it justice in real life if you see it you appreciate the incredible amount of commitment and precision it takes to do something like that the track was generally really well received and Dakota Norton who had started to gain some momentum on that da Vinci unor setup talked about it being interesting and how steep it was now this was a massive departure from the words that people normally describe Liang with which would have been dull and boring the eventual winners of Rachel Lon and Amry Pon both bested the rest in a really tight field and the Frenchmen stopped Gwyn going four in a row either way it was great to see not only tight racing but also a track that really demanded a lot of the Riders that’s said it was nothing compared to what they had in store 2019 sought further revisions and built on the success of the 2018 course so there were more sections that ran parallel to the old bike park one that featured off camber open sections that really challenged the Riders it’s also worth considering that even though those warm summer days can lead to a really dusty course in the morning in those mountains there is a lot of moisture on the ground now that means that the be’s chew it up and by the time the a practice gets there later in the morning the track is already drastically deteriorated and changing rapidly this only makes for great racing and challenges Riders to think on their feet as opposed to the predictable bike park conditions they could have relied upon even a year or two prior bruny won that year in Lear gang beating Greg Manar by quite a slender margin that actually proved very important for the overall it was also great to see Tracy Hannah take her first win for a couple of years there was a period in women’s downhill where Rachel Lon was so dominant she kind of won when she wanted and left the other Riders fighting for scraps and then we rolled on to 2020 where things really got good and we finally had a track that was worthy of the best mountain bikers in the world but it was delivered with some something of a cool twist this was the year where they finally got what they’ve been asking for a steep lomy rutted track and it just so happened to be raced in absolutely treacherous conditions thick mud incredible pools and some very questionable gaps and that was before you even got to the motorway now in previous years you turn right on that second W ride but now you went left and went straight for this just the horrible section of wooded track that was hard enough to even slow down for when it was really really wet in previous years it felt like the track had been so focused on being manicured that it forgot to let the bikes do the work and kind of change the track to be what it needed to be this year was all the different and ruts were forming and big spiked tires were struggling to clear but ripping the dirt up all the same it proved to be something of a watershed moment for camil balanche who actually won in Le gang for the first time and started her run of dominance there that was only ended last year by Valley Hall’s first win on home soil it also saw a win for Rees Wilson that was nothing if not incredibly popular now Rees had been chipping away for years I mean he scored a suppose it been 2018 when he scored a Podium at Fort William and he was known to be a massive Talent on the bike he just never quite had the Stars Al line but when they did in Le gang he showed how he is a master of his craft from 2021 we have seen some revisions to the track year after year however it seems to be building on the foundations of that big overhaul between 2018 2019 and 2020 it’s also left a really interesting blueprint in European downhill when it comes to World cut venues because I think we’ve also seen a really positive impact on tracks such at lensy have taken the approach of let’s open up some sections let’s let Riders choose where they want to go and move away from this prescriptive bike park approach of hey we’ve got a good bike park we want to advertise it we want to have a run that you know you and I could run at a weekend as punters and move to an idea of let’s make the best RAC trck possible and I think that is just fing sick it’s also been really great to see Riders such as Marcus Pele have a bit of influence on what that LE gang track looks like and it’s definitely been a good thing funnily enough Le gang used to be considered something of a reprieve after the onslaught of Fort William which normally is a week prior in the World Cup calendar but in some ways they’ve kind of flipped roles in recent years you’ve seen the Fort William track get smoother take some rocks out fill in some gaps with some sand and the Le gang track kind of Radder and bad than ever the weather’s also flipped but I don’t think leang can take credit for that nor would they want to and it’s been great to see lean go from this weird bike park curiosity almost novelty Venue 10 years ago to now being one of the best downhill tracks on the calendar more power to them I think they’ve done a great job so we’ve got the race there this weekend so get in the comments with who you think is going to make the most of what we’ll hopefully be a steep rutted and in some ways quite horrible Lear gang track thanks for watching and we’ll catch next time [Music]